


Beloved

by JuggiesBuggie



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 20:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14065041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuggiesBuggie/pseuds/JuggiesBuggie
Summary: A cute Bughead one shot of Jughead buying Betty's Christmas gift.





	Beloved

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @paintingsonherskin for being my beta. ILY.

The mall was Jughead’s least favorite place to be. It’s loud and crowded with people and he has to drive all the way to Greendale. So he goes at the crack of dawn, right when the stores open. Only a few people are there when he walks in, a denim sherpa jacket lazily thrown over his shoulders and three hundred dollars burning a hole through his back pocket. He had decided to shed his serpent skin for this trip. Even out of Riverdale people gave him judged looks for the large snake on his back.

He looked around the deserted mall. A Macy’s took up half of one wall, the bright neon sign shone bright. Jughead wasn’t a fashion icon but he thought he’d be able to find a nice shirt for Betty if he really tried. But a shirt isn’t the kind of romantic gift Betty was probably hoping for.

He sat down on one of the hard chairs in the center of the mall, his elbows resting on his knees, his face in his hands. He thought about what Betty likes. Reading, writing, milkshakes, sweaters, school.

Nothing.

He thought for what felt like hours, even to the point where people started flooding the recently silent mall, but he couldn’t think of anything.

He thought back to the many wonderful nights him and Betty spent together, her blonde ponytail and a book. Or the days the two of them and Archie would spend up in Betty’s attic reading scary stories in the dark way before Betty and Jughead even got together.

 

 

_They were young, seven at the most, when Fred decided to take the three of them to go get ice cream. It was a warm summer day and they had just spent the morning running through sprinklers in Archie’s backyard._

_Their ice cream cones had cold melted cream dripping down the side, softening the hard waffle. Betty was licking up the side of her cone, her hair in a high ponytail, a pair of knee length shorts over her swimsuit. Jughead wore a pair of Archie’s long basketball shorts reaching halfway down his calves._

_“Hey, guys,” Fred said throwing the paper wrapper of his cone into a nearby garbage can. “I need to go return a book at the store over here, will you guys be fine if I leave you here?”_

_Archie nodded licking his tongue up the side of his cone. Betty though, had other ideas. “I want to come Mr. Andrews!” She said standing off the flimsy plastic chairs at the ice cream shop. She handed the last of her cone to Jughead who happily took it from her just as he finished off his own._

_Fred looked spectacle for a second and said, “I don’t know if I can trust the boys alone.”_

_“Hey! Dad!” Archie said furling his eyebrows. Betty hunched her back and sat down in her chair again. Obviously mad that she couldn’t go._

_Jughead was sad seeing Betty look so let down. So he stood from his chair pulling Archie up with him, “We’ll come too.”_

_Betty’s eyes lit up as she stood once more clapping her hands together in excitement. She ran over and squeezed Jughead’s torso as hard as possible. “Thank you!”_

_“No, I don’t want to go to a stupid bookstore.” Archie said yanking his arm from Jughead’s clasp. Jughead went red hot. Couldn’t Archie see that Betty really wanted to go to the bookstore?_

_“Fine,” Fred said picking his keys and his wallet off of the table. “Betty, Jughead and I will go without you.”_

_Once inside the bookstore Fred brought his book up to the counter while Betty and Jughead roamed the shelves. They started at the picture books, having just only started reading, short paperbacks about princesses kissing frogs and elephants dancing. But then the pair started to shift towards the adult books. Betty’s eyes caught sight of a large book with the word Beloved stamped in red on the cover. She plucked it off the table instantly and flipped it over to the back. Slowly, she read the words out loud to Jughead while he listened quietly, paying attention to each and every word, watching her soft lips. She read at a slow pace sounding out each word. She had only started reading last year so it wasn’t really her strong point._

_She finished reading the short blurb and looked up into Jughead’s eyes. “I want to read this,” she said with such determination that Jughead felt taken aback._

_Jughead was going to tell her that no way would her mom let her read that, but she had already started walking over to a small circular table in the corner of the store, lugging the big book behind her._

_It was that moment that Jughead realized he liked Betty as more than a friend. He like, liked her. He liked her soft pink baby lips and her slightly scabbed knees. He liked her tight blonde ponytail tied with a pink elastic. He liked her strong arms carrying the gigantic book to the table, the book that is almost as big as her. He liked her quiet determination to do whatever she wanted._

_Archie had always told her she was pretty and she looked cute. But Jughead was sure that Archie had never once noticed her rebellious attitude or soft sweaters. He had never once noticed her bright green eyes or her broad shoulders. He had never once seen how perfect Betty was, and that annoyed him._

_Fred came around the corner slipping his wallet into his pocket. He looked over at Jughead sitting in the chair across from Betty watching her lips move to every word she read. Fred’s eyes followed Jugheads down to Betty’s face and then to the book._

_“Oh no no no,” Fred said taking the book out from under Betty’s elbow. “This is an adult book that your mother would not want you reading.” He placed the book back on the table Betty had taken it from._

_Betty looked angry but no way was she going to talk back to Mr. Andrews. She slid off her chair, a scowl on her lips which Jughead did not particularly like. Jughead had a sudden urge to talk back to Fred for Betty but thought it could only make things worse. They walked out of the store, Betty not looking or feeling super happy._

_“I’m going to go and buy that book,” She said, looking up at Fred, squinting her eyes in the sun. “Polly will walk me down here and I will buy the book and I’ll sneak it into the attic and read it.”_

_“Really?” Fred said, pretending to look surprised._

_Betty nodded looking straight ahead, “Will you help me Juggie?” she asked turning her head to face his. They were walking down the sidewalk, Betty in the middle of the two boys. It was hard to see her face through the sunlight but Jughead nodded anyways._

_Betty smiled and turned her head to center again, “Thanks Juggie.” They kept walking until they saw Archie at the table just finishing up his ice cream cone. Fred waved at him and Betty ran up to tell him her plan. Jughead saw Betty explain it all excitedly, hoping Archie would want to help, but Archie shrugged and went to throw the wrapper of his cone away._

_Betty heaved and walked back to Jughead, “Guess it’s just me and you Juggie.”_

_“Guess so,” he said, looking at Archie in his swimsuit and wet hair. “Just me and you.”_

 

 

Jughead smiled at the thought of them so young. They’ve come so far from sprinkler runs and ice cream cones though Jughead would never say no to one of those. He hit himself for not thinking of Beloved earlier. It had been on her obvious mental wish list since last Christmas yet he still failed to remember it. He picked his phone off his knee and slipped it in his pocket slowly getting up to walk towards the small book store at the back of the mall. Now that he knows what to get her he can’t stop thinking about other times the book popped up.

 

 

_Her head lay on his denim jacket, her pink dress draped across the cold bench. Her tears stained the blue denim, his arm wrapped around her thin shoulders. She was flush up against his side crying into his shoulder._

_“Do… do you want to talk about it?” He asked stuttering a little. At thirteen years old he wasn’t completely educated in talking to girls, “I mean, you can say no I just… just wanted to be nice.”_

_She wiped at her nose with the back of her hand, lifting herself off of him. Jughead’s side instantly chilled and he wished she’d come back. “No you’re okay,” she said lifting her knees to her stomach and burying her face in them._

_Jughead nodded and placed his arm on her back rubbing around in circles. His stomach fluttered at the feeling of her spine under his fingers. “I just thought that Archie and I could be something,” Betty mumbled, “I thought last week when we went to Pop’s it was kind of like a date.”_

_Jughead was trying his best to listen without the nagging jealousy in the back of his mind, but just like every time he saw Betty and Archie together, it made a subtle pop up. He had had a crush on Betty since that day in the bookstore. She had always been nice to him but never in a romantic way. Her eyes were only set on her handsome red headed neighbor._

_“Even he acted like it was a date! He asked me about my favorite books and movies and what I wanted to be when I grew up. He even wore a button up for god’s sake!” She was angry, lifting her head from her knees and curling her hands into fists until her knuckles were white. Although Jughead couldn’t see, her nails dug into the warm flesh of her palms._

_“Hey hey hey,” Jughead said taking her hands into his, loosening her fists, “He may not want to be in a relationship with you right now, but I know that he loves you, at least as a friend.”_

_He was trying his best not to lose it and kiss her right then and there. This proved to be harder than it seems as he was actually holding her hands. But he knew she didn’t like him like that, he knew perfectly well, they were too different._

_“I doubt he even remembers what I told him when he asked about my favorite book,” Betty said, removing her hands from his._

_“You can tell me, and I will remember,” Jughead said even though he already knew what her favorite book was._

_She looked at him with doubtful eyes, “Promise?”_

_He raised his pinky up and she linked hers with his, a smile on his face, “Promise.”_

_She rested her head once again, onto his shoulder and sighed, her breath making a cloud in the air. “Beloved by Toni Morrison.”_

_“Really?” He said trying his best to look surprised as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, “Isn’t that like a big kid book?”_

_He remembered back to the day years ago when Betty wanted Fred to buy her the book. It was huge and much too old for her and when Fred said no, she pouted and she didn’t read it until years later but it had always been her favorite book since then._

_She nodded and closed her eyes. “You aren’t cold, are you?” Jughead asked, “You can have my jacket if you want.”_

_“I’m alright Jug,” she said sleepily._

_And they lay there until their toes were numb and their lips frosty. And Jughead brought her inside well after midnight, much to Alice’s distaste. And Jughead, later that week, talked Fp into driving Jughead down to the Greendale Library, the big one almost twice as big as Riverdale’s. And he checked out the large book off the shelf and he read it all that night. And he loved every last bit of it._

 

The first time he had read Betty Coopers favorite book. He loved it all. Not only was it a good book but it also felt like he had a piece of Betty with him. He batted his eyes innocently as he went up the escalator, thinking about Betty’s past with Archie made him slightly sad and slightly mad. He wants to punch Archie for breaking Betty’s heart but it was also kind of a go sign for Jughead. If Archie and Betty had gotten together, Jughead would have never gotten a chance with her. A chance with the girl he loves and has loved for ages.

He thought about Betty, sad and crying on his shoulder, and a single droplet of salty tear trickled down his face. He quickly wiped it away hoping no one on the crowded escalator saw his moment of innocence. Only Betty can make him go soft and plush. Only Betty has that effect on him.

And he loved it.

From when they’re lying on his ratty old couch to watching crime documentaries on Betty’s pink plush bed, he loved Betty twirling his already curled hair. He loved how Betty was the only one who could make his eyes melt. Heart eyes as she called it. He loved it.

He walked into the small bookshop, an array of titles stacked from the floor to the ceiling on monstrous shelves. He saw it, straight ahead of him, on the tallest shelf.  
Beloved.

 

 

_They lay on his couch, their long legs intertwined on the coffee table, their toes tickling each other’s feet. Betty was reading her book, Jughead was typing on his laptop. His legs reached far off the table but she insisted on having the table closer so they could both put their feet on it._

_“Stop Jug, that tickles,” Betty said with a smile, moving her legs away from his._

_“Aw, babe!” Jughead laughed, “Now my feet are cold.”_

_“Go get a blanket you hobo.” Betty said flipping the page of her book, quoting their mysterious friend._

_Jughead smiled pulling Betty’s waist closer to him, “Hey, watch it. Only Cheryl can call me that.”_

_Something about the little tug on Betty’s waist electrified her. She felt the need to be bold. To be in charge. She wanted to show him that she can call him whatever she wanted. Betty swiftly bookmarked her book and set it upon the coffee table. She then moved to straddle Jughead, her long blonde locks tickling his jawline. She was not in the mood for reading anymore._

_This action startled Jughead as Betty had only once ever straddled him. Right after the serpents had come to give him his jacket the evening of the jubilee. It had been awkward and forced then, now it came naturally. Like they were designed for each other._

_“Can... I take your shirt off?” Betty asked quietly moving a long strand of blonde hair out of her face. Jughead responded greedily with a nod as Betty trailed her fingertips down to the hem of his shirt, slowly lifting up the grey fabric. Her long nails tickled his chest as she continued to remove the shirt._

_“Betty?” Jughead asked after he had shed his shirt._

_“Yeah babe?” Betty responded as she softly rested her hands on his chest._

_“I love you.”_

_“I love you too.”_

_“Can I take your shirt off too?”_

_“Yes please.”_

_Both of their sexual interactions have been limited to the one night where Jughead had slammed Betty into the Jones’s countertop. That had been the first time Jughead had touched Betty’s bare skin let alone anyone else’s. They were supposed to feel awkward and weird about this. But they felt anything but, they knew each other like they’ve lived together all their life. Like they were soulmates._

_Jughead swiftly removed the grey “S” shirt Betty had stolen from him and went to kiss her. Their lips collided softly and smoothly. Jughead opened his mouth letting his tongue loose, massaging her lips as Betty did the same._

_They were there for what felt like hours when Betty went up to breath, heaving heavily. “When’s your dad getting home?” She asked running her fingers through his dark hair._

_“Not for a long time.” Jughead responded, his arms wrapped around Betty’s waist so tight that she could suffocate. But she liked it._

_Jughead’s kisses trailed down her neck to her smooth collarbone when Betty tugged his jaw up. “Hey can we just lay here for a second?” Betty asked, her fingers playing with his earlobes._

_Jughead nodded, rubbing small circles on the back of Betty’s back just like he had done so when they were thirteen sitting on the cold bench. She shifted off of Jughead’s lap and onto the spot on the couch next to him. Jughead wrapped his arm around her small shoulders pulling her bare torso closer to his. She leaned her head onto his chest smelling the somehow calming cigarette smoke and the scent of shampoo._

_“What were you writing?” Betty asked nuzzling her nose into his collarbone. Jughead’s soft curls danced around her forehead as he spoke to her._

_“My novel,” Jughead smiled to her. He lifted his hand to massage her soft scalp, “What were you reading?”_

_“Beloved.”_

_“Ah yes, a Betty Cooper classic,” Jughead joked. Betty had loved this book ever since she laid eyes on it all those years ago in the book shop._

_“It’s just. . . so great,” Betty said scrunching her eyebrows and using her hands out in front of her to help explain. “It’s so beautifully written. And you can’t just read it once. There are so many small details you have to read it multiple times to get the full experience.”_

_“So it’s your beloved?” Jughead asked as Betty lifted her head from his chest and rolled her eyes, “I don’t know if I can compete with it. You seem like you love it more than me.”_

_“Oh shush you big baby,” Betty said lifting the grey s shirt from off the ground and slipping it back over her. Jughead lifted his own shirt from the arm of the couch and roughly put it back over his body._

_“I want to get my own copy someday but I just can’t afford it right now,” Betty said motioning over to the book, “This is just a library copy.”_

_“Maybe one day I’ll get to buy my beloved her beloved Beloved.” Jughead said with a smile leaning into Betty for a kiss._

_Betty smiled and placed a hand on his jaw, giving into his kiss, “Maybe.”_

_Once they parted Betty picked Beloved back up off the coffee table and opened to her page. Jughead sighed and opened his laptop up again, resuming his typing right where he left off. As if nothing had just happened between them. Betty’s legs took their spot tangled in Jughead’s once more when they heard a key in the door of the trailer._

_“You said he wasn’t coming home for a long time,” Betty hissed at Jughead._

_Jughead’s eyes bulged and he hastily shrugged, “Good thing we didn’t go any further.”_

_Betty scoffed at him and swatted his shoulder with the back of her hand, turning back to her book just in time for Fp to walk in, his arms laden with grocery bags._

_“Hey Jug, hey Betty,” He said stumbling around trying to get through the door with only half a hand._

_“Hello Mr. Jones,” Betty said looking up from her book with a smile. Once inside Fp dropped the bags down on the kitchen counter, the same kitchen counter that Betty and Jughead had almost done it on only a few weeks prior. Betty shuddered just thinking about it._

_Fp sighed, “How many times will I have to tell you to just call me Fp?”_

_“Sorry Mr. Jones,” Betty played back a smile forming on her lips as she studied the words on the pages in front of her._

_Fp sighed once more as Jughead chuckled, “What are you reading?” He asked lifting a bundle of bananas from the brown paper bag._

_“Beloved. Toni Morrison.”_

_“Ah, reading Beloved right next to your beloved I see.”_

_“Dad,” Jughead groaned, finally looking up from his laptop screen._

_“What?” Fp exclaimed, “You probably just said the same thing five minutes ago!”_

_“He’s not wrong,” Betty said smartly, looking over to Jughead. Jughead gave her an evil side eye then a playful eye roll as Betty giggled._

_“Well,” Betty said, bookmarking her book and standing off the couch to get her jacket. She stretched out, reaching her hands behind her back and yawning. “I should probably head home now.”_

_Betty slid on her pink jacket over Jughead’s grey “S” shirt and walked to the door as Jughead stood up to say goodbye._

_“Bye Betts.”_

_“Bye Jug.”_

_He gave her a quick kiss before she walked through the doorframe. He stood at there for a second longer watching her walk down the steps. Smiling to himself he shut the door and walked over to the couch, sinking down in the soft cushions._

_“You’ve really fallen for that Cooper girl haven’t you?” Fp asked through sips of a bear he had just acquired from the fridge._

_“I guess I have,” Jughead said lifting his laptop back into his lap._

_Fp walked over from the kitchen to the living room, setting his bear down on the coffee table, “Figured out what you’re getting her for Christmas yet?”_

_“I think I have a pretty good idea,” Jughead said, secretly browsing through online book stores on his laptop._

“How much?” Jughead asked the sales clerk, motioning to the book.

“Well,” She said walking over from her desk to grab the old book. “This one is twenty-five. But we have some first editions in the back if you want to take a look. I think one of them is even signed.”

Jughead patted his back pocket feeling the small amount of money he had brought with him. It would be a lot, he knew that, but this is Betty he was shopping for. Betty “I did it to protect you” Cooper. The love of his young life.

“How much?” Jughead asked again, sliding his wallet out of his back pocket. He repositioned his beanie on his head allowing a single loose curl to bounce in front of his eyes.

The clerk fidgeted with the pages of the book, thinking to herself. “I am pretty sure the signed one is somewhere around two fifty, but I’m not positive,” She said sliding the book back on the shelf and turning around to face the back room, “Let me go check.”

A few moments later the clerk came back with a small stack of the books. On the top, in a small plastic box, Jughead could only assume was the signed copy. He lifted it off as she started telling him the prices.

“Ok so the first editions are each fifty and the signed one is two hundred,” She said tallying on her fingers.

Jughead sighed at the large sum of money this would cost him. Two hundred dollars would bring him down to only about eighteen. He would have to lay off Pop’s for at least a week and maybe even start cooking. He shuddered at the thought of even boiling water. He could always just get her the new copy, right? But he loves Betty. And Betty loves this book.

“I’ll get the one on top please,” Jughead said confidently, plucking the bills out of his thin leather wallet one at a time.

The clerk looked surprised at first but then took the plastic encased book off the stack and brought it behind the counter.

“Hey can I get it wrapped?” Jughead asked handing her the thin bills. She took them from his hand and looked him in the eye.

“Yeah,” She said, opening the register, her eyes still looking into his. “Is it for anyone special?”

“Yes, definitely special,” Jughead said smiling for what felt like the first time today. “My girlfriend. She loves Toni Morrison.”

“Cute.”

Jughead winced at her choice in words. Betty was anything but cute. She was like a muted kitten that was ready to pounce at any moment but has just been held down all her life. Her blonde locks looked like a hot light in the night, burning a path through the dark. Her eyes like deep dark forests, at least a thousand mysteries hidden in the depths. Her lips were like a piñata, conservative and poised on the outside, but like a party on the inside. He could go on for hours about what Betty meant to him but he snapped his thoughts back to the book.

“Could I also write a note to go in with it?” Jughead asked yet another question. One of many floating around his crowded head. The clerk nodded in response cutting a piece of the brown wrapping paper and handing him a cheap felt tip pen.

Jughead uncapped it and thought about what to write. He didn’t want to be soppy and sweet. Betty didn’t like that kind of stuff. He needed a good mixture of sweet and sophisticated. His pen hit paper almost immediately.

“A signed first edition for my beloved. Thanks for introducing me to your favorite writer. Love, Jug.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed my short little fic. It's my first real fic so if you would leave some comments I would love that. Thank you! 
> 
> -Sal


End file.
